Farewell to Employees at the Woods Hole Field Center

Mario Santos is leaving WHFC to begin his college studies at Tufts University.

Lester North of the Woods Hole Field Center (WHFC) has been selected as the Information Scientist with the Chief Information Officer in Reston, VA. Lester will work with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) information technology (IT) managers and specialists to develop the Geologic Discipline (GD)'s IT policy within the USGS' IT framework, and to establish an Information Technology Security program for GD.

Since joining the USGS in 1970, Lester has worked in both the foreign and domestic programs in the Geologic and Water Resources Disciplines. Since 1986, Lester has worked as a computer specialist with the Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) in Woods Hole, MA. Computer activities at WHFC are temporarily under the direction of Boyce Blanks, who has agreed to serve pending the recruitment of a permanent replacement later this summer.

Boyce is an Information Technology Specialist for the Water Resources Discipline (WRD) in Columbus, SC. He is serving his last year as a systems analyst for the Geographic Program Office. Boyce is a member of the WRD Windows Technical Advisory Committee (NT-TAC). He will be in Woods Hole until September 2002 as the WHFC Systems and Security Administrator, carrying out Lester's daily duties and assisting in the recruitment of a suitable replacement.

The WHFC is sadly bidding farewell to Mario Santos, who will be heading off to begin his college studies at Tufts University. Mario has been working with the geochemistry laboratory team under the supervision of Ellen Mecray for the past 3 years. After coming to the USGS during his sophomore year of high school, to escape paving tennis courts in the summer, Mario stayed on throughout his school days, working in the lab in the afternoons and on vacations.

The whole team will miss Mario's presence, his attention to detail, and his overall willingness to take on just about any task and see it through to completion. What will we do without our sediment grinder, sample splitter, acid-washer, sample weigher, freeze-drying specialist, and lab-archive organizer? We hope he comes back often during his vacations at home in Falmouth to visit, and maybe help out in the lab some more! Meanwhile, we'll be thinking of him as he exceeds all expectations for his college professors in chemistry!

WHFC is sadly saying goodbye to Becky Deusser, who will be starting graduate school at the Boston University Knight Center for Science and Medical Journalism this September, after working for more than a year on the Knowledge Bank project with Debbie Hutchinson. After receiving her M.S. in science journalism, Becky plans to write for a major newspaper or magazine, covering timely science and health issues.

This is our second time saying good-bye to Becky, who also worked in the data library with Nancy Soderberg from 1996 to 1998 while she was in high school. We'll miss her organizational and writing skills, as well as her diligence and helpfulness. Best of luck in this new and challenging change!